ONE NATION: A Post Apocalyptic, Dystopian Saga

by Michael W. Huard

  You could then hear Della’s facial bones cracking as he talked.

  Both Raegan and Jansa screamed at him to get his attention, but it did no good. He simply tossed her in the air, caught her upside down, and dropped her on his knee, cracking her in half. He then came to the door opening, looking down.

  The women on the stairwell had already started running back the way they had come.

  BSR1 yelled down to them, “Run, run, all you want. There is no way out. I will find you wherever you go. I will follow the blood that is dripping from your feet.”

  The ladies got to a lower level and went through a door into a lab area. The slowed down and hid for a second now.

  “What can we do?” Jansa asked her sister. “We’re so weak, and he so powerful. We can't fight him. We’d need major weapons even if we did.”

  Raegan then whispered, “Della said there were others here trying to help. We must find them.”

  Jansa nodded. “You’re right. We have to keep going. Like I always say, we are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided. Lord be with us right now; we need help, we need the strength of the sisterhood to be here.”

  She helped Raegan get going again.

  “Come on. I'll carry you if I have to.” Both women went down more stairs a moment later, leading to another unknown destination. The weight of young Della’s gruesome death was still heavy on their hearts.

  Something above was echoing loud now. Neither of the women knew what it was. One could hear the sounds and even feel the building move. Little did they know, a massive hurricane had reached the city.

  CHAPTER TEN

  The Y-Wood Corporation’s newest, deadly weapon was done messing around. The cyborg Aliah had made several more stops and still there were no members of the Q-Jin sisterhood to be found. She now had a feeling that the data from Torres was false. He was hiding something, or his informants were.

  The long dark-haired woman was programmed to fight but certainly had the capability of Search and Destroy within her system. She was accompanied by several Corporation robots and after stopping at a few places, they made their way to Torres.

  She did a systems data scan and soon surmised that he very well might be was a spy working for the Corporation, yet also playing his own game with others.

  He was out here as well and she needed to locate him.

  She scanned the database of dealers and contraband holders out in the streets, and it didn't take long before one of his so-called connections was found. She headed right out to it.

  She convinced the dealer to tell her where his little, hidden, secret warehouse complex was. Only a few bodies had to die during the talks.

  Aliah found herself at his front door within an hour.

  Torres’s men were a hodge-podge of characters. Those that were out front as guards were not stupid, though. They saw the Cooperation soldiers and offered little resistance.

  After she entered the warehouse, it was not long before she and her entourage stood before him.

  He gave her a silver-toothed smile and before the killer cyborg woman said anything he asked, “I suppose you folks have not heard? There's a storm coming, a hurricane for that matter. You might want to tell your boss to batten down the hatches.”

  Aliah did not care about a storm. Torres could see that.

  “But here you are! This must be important?”

  The cyborg was beautiful and built with the finest materials. You would almost think she was human if not for the fine outlines showing a connection or two along her frame.

  She liked to wear brown leather pants and a metal-reinforced halter top. She was not built to fear anything, or to care what someone may think of her looks.

  “I won't melt in the rain,” she then announced out of the blue. She then rolled her neck some to loosen it up.

  Several bots raised laser rifles and Torres’s people raised weapons as well.

  “I'm going to ask you a simple question,” she then said. “Where are the women I seek? I would imagine you have already spoken to them by now.”

  Torres, sitting in a high-back throne chair, his favorite place these days, stood up to his 7-foot height.

  “What particular women do you speak about? I like to talk to many females daily.”

  Several of the robots accompanying the cyborg woman now spread out more, facing Torres and his ragtag group. He had with him six men and one woman. Hardly a match for Corporation soldiers and a death-dealing, billion-dollar cyborg.

  His crew though, were tough street fighters and they would not back down.

  “We're not here to fight,” spoke the cyborg. “Otherwise, you would have no one left to pay homage to you in your magnificent chair.”

  Torres grinned. “You like my chair, don’t you?” He then explained, “I think you have me mistaken for someone else. I have notified President Purcell as to the arrival of the so-called sisterhood of women you seek. Their whereabouts as of this moment have nothing to do with me. Go ahead, take a look around. I'm not harboring any of them or helping them in any matter. There was notice they were in the streets and my sources told me. That’s it. You're at the wrong place, my dear.”

  Aliah studied this tall, bone-masked man. He too had bionic parts, which she could see quite clearly. Several parts of his body had been worked on, not to mention the walking stick he held, which was an advanced weapon itself.

  “Okay,” spoke the Corporation cyborg. “We’ll just take a quick peek around.”

  It was then she directed her soldiers to search about. They found nothing that would indicate that the women were about. Aliah then stopped in front of one particular young woman as she searched. She was a young American Asian, a teenager with black hair and a streak of white running through it.

  Aliah stared her in the face, scanning her own databank for a facial recognition or perhaps a connection with the Q-Jin sisterhood.

  Yet, the young teenager did not come up as anyone.

  “Who are you?” Aliah then asked her. She was unique and had the borg wondering more.

  Karma gave her a grin. “I’m another scoundrel living in the city, acting as a spy. Is that what you’re asking?”

  Aliah smiled.

  “You're in pretty good shape. Do you actually know how to use that katana on your back?”

  Karma nodded she did. “I like to think I do.”

  The cyborg just stood there, staring at her even more now. “Do you have a barcode?” she then asked.

  Those black box markings often would tell who a woman belonged to these days. Corporation standards also called for such codes for any outlaw as to be branded with.

  Karma had no such markings. Yet she still asked, “You want me to strip?”

  Aliah turned about and started heading to the exit doors.

  She went about directing the robots to leave now. It was just as she reached the double front doors that she turned back to face Torres and his motley crew.

  “I'm sure I'll see you all again,” she announced.

  Torres, still standing, nodded his head as if to agree with her. “And it will be my pleasure,” he replied with a smirk.

  Aliah just stood in the doorway, now looking at him and then to Karma.

  It was then he gave her a false lead. “Word has it that the five of them are on route to Greenwich Village. I hope this helps you.”

  He was lying, she knew that much. She immediately headed back to the Empire State Building with her soldiers. She took the lead on entering and immediately spotted foul play at a few outer sections within the grounds. Something was going on here, that was for sure.

  As they marched inside and down several hallways, she and the robots suddenly spotted the two prisoners coming out of a side door.

  Jansa and Reagan had to turn quickly and go a different direction upon seeing them. There appeared no end to this madness for the Mystical Slayer leaders.

  Aliah right away made contact with BSR1. She let him know she had see
n the dead guards, and also the women who were now on the run.

  He responded that he was well aware of the women and on their tail as well. He also mentioned to just follow the blood.

  “Watch out for traps,” Chaya pointed out to her three other sisters. The four of them were now together. Each pair had a digital map showing the cell area, and now grouped as one they were almost there.

  Naiera saw laser beams crossing the floor and nodded a warning to Chaya. Each of them, Paka, Sun, Chaya, and Naiera, carefully hopped over these and went on.

  It was then a loud megaphone sound came over the hall area announcing, “Intruder alert, intruder alert.”

  The women kept going, next coming to a new doorway.

  They quickly made their way down floor after floor, finally reaching an area with cell doors. Two were still open and one in particular had blood all around it, leading down the hallway.

  “Something really bad has happened here,” Paka called out.

  “Don't say that!” the young redhead, Sun, replied. “No one's here. The blood leads way from the cell.” Sun already was going that way.

  Chaya grabbed her by the shoulder. “Stop. You don't realize what could be in here. Again, they have traps everywhere. Slow down. We do this as a team. Paka, you take the lead. I can feel the presence of both our sisters close by.”

  Paka, who had some sort of device in her hand, went to the front and slowly used it to detect for traps.

  A signal would go off when laser beams, trip wires, or robotic creatures were ready to be released. It was not long after they came into a hallway that they saw Della Winstrip’s dead and broken body on the marble floor.

  Chaya felt a knot form in her stomach. This woman had done so much to help them. She was a hero to the sisterhood for her willpower and bravery. All the sisters took a knee and knelt beside the body for a moment.

  Chaya then said some final words here. “When all hope is lost, love cannot be silent. I know our leaders are still alive. We must carry on.”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  The sisters avoided the deadly traps of Y-Wood as they searched about. They even found a room full of weapons that would come in handy.

  Most of the traps were easily detected, especially the ones that would send laser beams able to decapitate those who are not supposed to be in the hallway or who had not punched in all the proper passcodes.

  Some traps were still impossible to avoid.

  The four of them now came to a crossroads in the hall. They could head left or right. Paka, looking over the digital map, knew that they needed to turn to the right, but also her trap detector on her wrist was going off with a pulsating beat to it. Something was not right here.

  Before they were able to move anymore, robotic specimens resembling the color of the walls themselves, a whitish-silver tone, dropped from the ceiling and sides. They looked similar to the nozzle of a shower head but had the bodies of spiders. They could crawl anywhere and their open maws were already chomping, their beady little red digital eyes glowing.

  Two fell from above onto Paka and her eyes began to bulge out right off the bat. She screamed, wildly grabbing both of them by their tails and then, spinning about, she began slamming them into the nearby wall. She then ran across the hallway to the other wall, doing the same thing.

  It was after she smashed them both onto the stone tile floor that jumped up and down on them with the soles of the feet kicking their faces in.

  The two young teens looked at Chaya, wanting to know what to do themselves as two more fell down before them in the hallway. Chaya pointed over at Paka and then said, “Do what she did.”

  But Sun had her laser guns out, blasting before any other thought came to mind. She was firing consecutive shots into each of the robotic spider monsters. And in seconds, she was dropping those in front of them. They were unmoving in the hall.

  The young teens looked back at Chaya who replied, “Or that!”

  A couple more came from the ceiling. One landed on Chaya’s leg. She pounded it with her fist over and over to make it release its grip. As it fell to the floor, she soccer kicked it with her right leg, sending it spiraling up into the ceiling. It smashed hard and then came back down, dented, sparking, and burning, and, finally, not moving.

  One of the nasty things still on the wall was closing in on Paka, who looked at Naiera and said, “Go ahead. You got it.”

  The thing crawled its way up the wall and, almost like a shark, leapt off at its prey. Its mouth was wide open.

  Naiera took a karate-like fighting stance. The flexible young lady brought her leg up and side kicked the thing right in the mouth. It crashed to the floor but kept on going, slithering back at Naiera.

  Paka, now screaming, ran over to it and stomped the thing with her boot, smashing it into pieces.

  She then looked at Chaya, saying, “These were not as tough as I recall from the past?”

  Her good friend nodded as if to agree. Then she added, “I think that’s a good thing.”

  It was then minutes later, after cutting down several hallways and going up a second mini stairwell, the four sisters continued to track the bloodstained floor and entered what appeared to be a large, open-area dining hall.

  It was here they saw Reagan and Jansa at its far end.

  It was a sight to behold. The only problem was that they were all now going the wrong direction. Chaya and Paka both knew of the escape plan, and this was not the correct route.

  They were supposed to get up on top to the roof, where a ship would be waiting to get them all out of here. Then again, to make matters worse, the heavy crackling of thunder and lightning had picked up steadily outside, A hurricane had reared its ugly head at a very bad time.

  “Oh my God,” Sun called over. “It's so good to see you.”

  Raegan, still looking worse for the wear, looked really bad, and she had no hair. Yet, she still tried to smile.

  Jansa gave the others a thumbs up, calling over, “Now we just have to get out of this place.”

  Paka waved the leaders over. “We need to backtrack and go up. Sin has a ship waiting for us above. Hurry now.”

  But it was then, coming through two side double doors, that BSR1 appeared. The black robot with red eyes was quite amused to now find six women in one spot.

  The six sisters were together and wanted nothing to do with the super bot, but it was then Aliah with her robot soldiers came in the hall to the left of them all.

  BSR1 pointed over at the cyborg and guards with her. He then asked, “I see we have more of your kind here with us. Please do introduce me to your four sisters.”

  “God help us!” Sun now spoke out loud. “Please hear my plea,” she said, already drawing a laser pistol from each side of her hip and pointing the newly recovered weapons towards the robots in their way.

  “And if you don't hear me, lord, guide me,” she added, already letting loose a volley of shots at the bots.

  Paka did not hesitate either. The weapons room had been generous to them, and she now revealed several grenades, which she went about tossing out across the room. Each exploded and blew out the floor, ceiling, and walls where they landed. The holes and destruction cut off the cyborg and her bots.

  All the women ran for it. Paka went and helped Reagan with assistance from Naiera. They had to move fast to escape the clutches of the evil black robot coming after them.

  The plan had been all along to get outside to the getaway ship. Sinaye’s knowledge of cloning vessels had hopefully hidden the appearance of such a ship, and at the right moment, they could all board it and fly away.

  Boom! The whole building suddenly shook. The wind outside howled loud enough for them to hear it. And as they climbed stairs up, the sound of heavy rain continued to get louder and louder. It actually led them in the proper direction just by the sound.

  Sin was out there. She and Resin had done as planned. Sneaking in in such bad weather was good and bad. Their ship was now hovering in the sky, w
aiting for the sisters to get out there.

  It was soon enough that they saw them all come up to the observatory tower outside.

  “There they are!” Sinaye announced to Resin, who was already preparing to lower a ladder down for them.

  The sky was dark, the rain now splattering everywhere. The wind was ripping all about. No Y-Wood ships were out there.

  Resin immediately took off their cloaking device so all six could see the ship’s locale. But it was still high in the air and before the girls could get near it and its lowering ladder, out rushed BSR1 from one end and Aliah and her robots from the other.

  Sin and Resin were all upset, pointing the three groups out, praying the sisters could still get away. They could not go lower with the ship. There were too many pointed metal pieces and lighting was crackling everywhere. Their ship as well was unsteady and could crash at any moment in such high winds.

  Laser beams started firing back and forth as both sides on the roof took to heavy fighting.

  Aliah and BSR1 were done messing around and both took to running directly towards the six sisters.

  Chaya screamed out over the crazy storm, “Get Raegan and Jansa to the ship. Help them up the ladder. Sun, Naiera, go. Paka and I will help hold them off.”

  The young girls did as they were told, both caught in the craziest moment of their lives.

  Jansa did not agree.

  “I can fight too. Help Reagan. I will join you all soon.”

  Chaya shook her head. She knew Jansa was weak but could not make her change her mind.

  Lighting suddenly hit an observation booth and the whole roof crackled in a blue-yellow color.

  Aliah came before Paka and the two went at it, kicking and punching until they ended up grabbing one another in a fury and rolling to the tower’s floor.

  Paka yelled out at borg, “I’m going to kick your ass before Mahira has to in a death match.”